1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus that generates a predetermined pattern by means of a plurality of light modulating elements composed of an electro-optical crystalline material, and exposes the predetermined pattern on a subject to be exposed, while conveying the subject to be exposed in a given direction. More specifically, the present invention relates to an exposure apparatus that attempts to enhance alignment accuracy of a pattern generated by the plurality of light modulating elements, and an exposure position of the subject to be exposed.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional exposure apparatus of this type includes: a stage on which the subject to be exposed is placed and held on an upper surface thereof; a light source arranged above the stage to emit light; a spatial light modulating device arranged between the stage and the light source, in which the plurality of light modulating elements provided with a pair of electrodes facing a side face parallel to a long axis direction of an elongated member composed of the electro-optical crystalline material are two-dimensionally arranged, designating opposite ends thereof as an incident end face and an emission end face of light from the light source, to generate a predetermined pattern by optically modulating transmitted light from the respective light modulating elements and expose the predetermined pattern on the subject to be exposed; and a control device that individually performs drive control of each light modulating element of the spatial light modulating device to generate a predetermined pattern (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-open (Kokai) Patent Application Publication No. 2007-310251).
However, in such a conventional exposure apparatus, alignment of the pattern generated by the plurality of light modulating elements of the spatial light modulating device and the exposure position of the subject to be exposed needs to be performed by shifting either one of the spatial light modulating device and the subject to be exposed in a direction substantially orthogonal to a conveying direction of the subject to be exposed in a plane parallel to the upper surface of the stage, and alignment accuracy is subject to the restriction of mechanical accuracy of an alignment mechanism. Therefore, it has been difficult to perform the alignment with accuracy equal to or less than the resolution of an exposure pixel irradiated onto the subject to be exposed.